A thermal boundary control method for a flexible thin disk rotating over critical and supercritical speeds

In practice a rotating flexible thin annular disk has to be operated at low speed, because three types of dynamic instabilities inevitably occur around critical and supercritical speeds, namely: aeroelastic, parametric and thermoelastic. The rotating disk is clamped and driven by a drive shaft attached to the disk inner edge. The external action of the flowing surrounding air causes the aeroelastic instability; a slider mass–damper–spring–friction moving load causes parametric instability; and disk/slider interface friction heat can cause thermoelastic instability. A thermal boundary control method is used to induce disk thermal membrane stresses utilizing drive shaft temperature increments to stabilize these dynamic instabilities. Fundamental investigations are made of disk temperature distribution, thermal stress, natural frequency, dynamic stability and steady state amplitude to validate and demonstrate the viability of the new control method. The thermal boundary control method offers valuable opportunities for rotating disk applications operating over critical and supercritical high speeds with high efficiency.